Do psychological tests to reveal who matters

No! I'm not advocating some ghastly, strap-down, barbaric torture. This is much more fun: gauge how someone sees the world.

Each of us has our own limited experience. Through circumstance, like friendship or even marriage, we put our worldviews together. We may become aware of what we were previously ignorant of, while sharing our similarities.

Still, it is really useful to see where fellow humans' minds fall through the cracks. (We all have them.)

For example, say you're a stereotypical emo-goth and you're at a gathering with friends. You're joshing about fave music with your chums, and you declare:

"I love Madonna!"

Some musicians are better at polarizing than others. Madonna's a fantastic example, because there have, in fact, been many 'Madonnas' over the years — the lustful, the spiritual, and the downright weird. Some fans love this phase but hate that one. But if you're not a Madonna fan, you only know this at the glib and superficial level. You don't know (or care) what effect Stuart Price and Mirwais had on her music.

But before we go to far, "I love Madonna!" is a nice net to catch reactions in. People can't help but blurt out what skims the top of their mental ocean. Even if it's a text-based medium like Digg comments, the rush to get your opinion out there is on.

Given the above context, I would expect a sadly copious netful of generic reactions like "Ewww!" There are bound to be fewer honest "What do you like about her?" questions in return, let alone "Which 'Madonna' are we talking about?"

The quality and uniqueness of response will key you into astute — eccentric — minds who are bound to be key influencers, independent thinkers, etc.

Therein lies the psychological test, which reveals more about your pals through their reactions than Madonna herself (after all, it's highly improbable she'd be present for this party).

"Who matters" isn't about discounting someone as worthless should they not pass this one-question test. (As Walter Bishop says, "That's preposterous!") It's about revealing, through a single question, a valuable sliver of someone's deeper analytical processes. The "matter" here is about the quality of the answer.

As we've seen on my own blog (check out the comments), it's all too easy to limit yourself based on word labels. Recognizing that and transcending our differences to bridge the mental gaps is what really matters. It opens up possibilities for discovery, and that's what great explorers and tastemakers are made of.

By the way, it's exceedingly rare to find someone who likes both Britney Spears and [INSERT X STYLE OF UNDERGROUND MUSIC], and can explain the connections between them. Beyond music trivia, this indicates a resourceful mind that almost certainly excels at cross-disciplinary problem-solving.

Tagged as: General